Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapse

[Ken]

“Represents “ is a relative term. The way I am using it is “has been voted in as the rep for collective bargaining.”

Education in Maryland is on a county by county basis. Each county, and each bargaining unit can, and likely does have a different bargaining agent. In Baltimore county, it has beer aft historically . Baltimore city has the BTU which also is an AFT affiliate. I am still trying to find out who AFT endorsed in the primary. The workers at the polling place across from school were shilling for Alsobrooks, but were from Stonewall, one of the big black democratic clubs. Fun fact, less than 10,000 votes separating the winner from second for mayor. Some of the city council races had less than 5,000 votes to a low of 1,500 TOTAL votes. Do not dismiss the importance of the machine, it can easily get out enough to make an election.

Another fun fact: the teachers union in the city is going ape over this, I will admit I did not know of its existence:

https://renewbaltimore.org/

Putting the city on a property tax diet would do much to eliminate it’s overgrown government.

By any objective analysis of this race, both candidates were establishment Democrats with lots of endorsement and support from establishment politicians and interest groups. Here is a detailed look at the results with county maps and county-by-county results: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... =url-share

In the end, the race really wasn't that close. Alsobrooks won by 11 percentage points. And from looking at the results mostly got her margin of victory from Prince George's County which is her home turf and where she is the long-time executive. Her margin of victory in Prince George's county alone was enough to win the race. Take that county out and Trone wins. Trone did well in western MD which is predictable because that is where he is from and what he represents with the MD 6th Congressional District in Congress. It looks like the suburban and rural votes for Trone were not enough to overcome Alsobrook's lead in Prince William County and Baltimore. In retrospect that seems pretty predictable and not any sort of sign that there is some Democratic "machine" pulling the strings to get a Black woman elected ahead of a White man. Each candidate drew votes from their own regional constituencies and that advantaged Alsobrooks who represented the more populated areas. Alsobrooks just did better in her own regional constituency than Trone did in his. He barely won some of the counties in western MD that he should have won by big margins. And that is what lost him the race. He also lost Montgomery County which as a liberal White congressman he should have won. He should have cleaned up in places like Bethesda which is rich, liberal and less than 5% Black.

Maybe there is some Democratic political machine in Baltimore that is going to gum up this whole bridge rebuilding project. I have no idea. But I don't think this Senate race is any evidence of that.

you looking at the same results as I am? Fun fact, Trone's largest business is in Baltimore County, just a short hop from my home. Care for some Old Overholt? They likely have it.

Alsobrooks has no base in the city, except the machine. At the polling place across from school, people were shilling for her, with signs. Where did these people come from, her support base in Prince Georges county? Nope, from Blue and Gold democratic club, west Baltimore. This is largely the successor to Stonewall, that gave us the Mitchell family. They were the "Black" counterpart to my grandfather's club. This is one of the "machine" clubs. She took the city 60-36. It is not "pulling strings," it is good old fashioned retail politics. Whoever has the best ground game wins.

OK, I exaggerated slightly looking at the percentages on the NYT site which doesn't list total votes by county. Statewide her margin of victory was 64,270 votes. Her margin of victory in Prince George's County was 53,405. So 83% of her margin of victory came from Prince George's County.

It doesn't surprise me that Democratic partisans in Baltimore and everywhere else are going to pick various sides in this election and get out to campaign. That is what activists do. That doesn't mean there is some machine controlling the vote.

[Judas Maccabeus]

By any objective analysis of this race, both candidates were establishment Democrats with lots of endorsement and support from establishment politicians and interest groups. Here is a detailed look at the results with county maps and county-by-county results: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... =url-share

In the end, the race really wasn't that close. Alsobrooks won by 11 percentage points. And from looking at the results mostly got her margin of victory from Prince George's County which is her home turf and where she is the long-time executive. Her margin of victory in Prince George's county alone was enough to win the race. Take that county out and Trone wins. Trone did well in western MD which is predictable because that is where he is from and what he represents with the MD 6th Congressional District in Congress. It looks like the suburban and rural votes for Trone were not enough to overcome Alsobrook's lead in Prince William County and Baltimore. In retrospect that seems pretty predictable and not any sort of sign that there is some Democratic "machine" pulling the strings to get a Black woman elected ahead of a White man. Each candidate drew votes from their own regional constituencies and that advantaged Alsobrooks who represented the more populated areas. Alsobrooks just did better in her own regional constituency than Trone did in his. He barely won some of the counties in western MD that he should have won by big margins. And that is what lost him the race. He also lost Montgomery County which as a liberal White congressman he should have won. He should have cleaned up in places like Bethesda which is rich, liberal and less than 5% Black.

Maybe there is some Democratic political machine in Baltimore that is going to gum up this whole bridge rebuilding project. I have no idea. But I don't think this Senate race is any evidence of that.

you looking at the same results as I am? Fun fact, Trone's largest business is in Baltimore County, just a short hop from my home. Care for some Old Overholt? They likely have it.

Alsobrooks has no base in the city, except the machine. At the polling place across from school, people were shilling for her, with signs. Where did these people come from, her support base in Prince Georges county? Nope, from Blue and Gold democratic club, west Baltimore. This is largely the successor to Stonewall, that gave us the Mitchell family. They were the "Black" counterpart to my grandfather's club. This is one of the "machine" clubs. She took the city 60-36. It is not "pulling strings," it is good old fashioned retail politics. Whoever has the best ground game wins.

OK, I exaggerated slightly looking at the percentages on the NYT site which doesn't list total votes by county. Statewide her margin of victory was 64,270 votes. Her margin of victory in Prince George's County was 53,405. So 83% of her margin of victory came from Prince George's County.

It doesn't surprise me that Democratic partisans in Baltimore and everywhere else are going to pick various sides in this election and get out to campaign. That is what activists do. That doesn't mean there is some machine controlling the vote.

They don’t control. They sure influence it. Always have, that is how it works. P.G. Country is a democratic stronghold that has begun to rival the city.

[Ken]

Anyone still keeping track of this? How are we doing on our timeline predictions? https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va ... ey-bridge/